Taking A Knee

Four-Time Olympic Champion Sanya Richardsross On Her First Brush With Racism And Why She Supports Social Rights Crusader Colin Kaepernick

- Gandharv Kamala

“WHY ARE ALL the angels white? Why ain’t there no black angels?” said Muhammad Ali, arguably the greatest boxer of all time, in 1983 during a visit to a local apostolic church in the U.S.A.

Three decades later, even as 2018 comes to an end, the battle against racism is still on. The prejudice is so pronounced that men, women, boys and girls of colour are often subjected to humanity.

Four-time Olympic champion Sanya Richards-Ross is not new to the discrimination. Recounting one of her first encounters, she said, “I went to a park which was close to my home in Texas along with my son and the nanny. There was a small boy, an elderly man and woman, and a young woman. The kid shouted, ‘Look there are black people here. Oh! They look like normal human begins’ I was shell shocked and at a loss of words.”

“The comment made by the kid was still sinking in. It was not a pleasant thing to hear from a seven or eight year-old. Kids that age do not know about racism or hatred unless taught at home. I so wanted to walk up to the old couple and tell them that they are wrong. But I let it go. But ever since that day, I told myself that I will have a word with the parents or with people who support racism,” recalled Richards-Ross, with a hint of sadness in her voice.

As per a survey published by The Washington Post, of the 798 people shot and killed by American police in the first half of 2018, 158–20 percent—belonged to the coloured race. On August 16, 2016, Colin Rand Kaepernick, an American football quarterback, ‘took a knee’ during the national anthem in a pre-season match. Six days later, he again refused to stand up during a home game for the San Francisco 49ers against Denver Broncos. The gesture was repeated during San Francisco’s game against Green Bay Packers on August 26.